I have spent almost twenty years teaching elementary-school children and currently teach fourth grade. Throughout my career, I have taught English Language Arts to students from kindergarten through fifth grade, giving me firsthand experience with children across the developmental reading levels this concept is designed to serve. 

I hold graduate degrees in education and reading/curriculum and instruction, giving me both classroom experience and a literacy-focused understanding of how children develop as readers.

I'm also an active participant in the LitRPG community through @keepreadingkristen, my reader platform and website, keepreadingkristen.com. Through my In Conversation author interview series, book features, social content, and reader community, I connect directly with LitRPG authors and readers. Keep Reading with Kristen currently reaches more than 8,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram, with additional viewership through YouTube, while the website provides a permanent home for author interviews, book discovery, and genre-focused content.

These conversations have allowed me to build direct relationships with authors and publishing professionals throughout the LitRPG and progression-fantasy community. Those relationships give me a unique perspective on the genre—not only as a reader, but as someone regularly listening to its writers, readers, and publishing professionals.

My classroom continually reinforces the connection between these worlds. I connect students not only with books, but with the authors who write them. My students are gamers. Some already play Dungeons & Dragons with their parents. They understand characters, quests, stats, skills, progression, and collaborative gaming because these ideas are already part of their lives and their families.

I know young readers. I know and love the LitRPG community.

LitRPG for Little Readers lives at the intersection of those two worlds.

And D'Agoe began with something even more personal.

He was my real Miniature Schnauzer. The little boy who gave him his unusual name is my son, Garrett, now 26.